Oregon lawmakers rescind invitation to researcher who promoted a fallacious vaccine-autism link.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Oregon lawmakers have rescinded an invitation to the researcher who promoted a fallacious vaccine-autism link.
The Statesman Journal interviewed Andrew Wakefield, who said that despite being disinvited from the state capitol, he will hold a town hall meeting in Portland.
Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham), chairwoman of the Senate health care committee, canceled his appearance because legislators have already heard enough information providing context for Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward’s bill that would prohibit parents from claiming nonmedical exemptions from their child’s vaccination schedule.
From the SJ:
The Lancet, the journal that published Wakefield’s original research, retracted his paper and his medical license was revoked. An investigation by the BMJ, formerly British Medical Journal, concluded that Wakefield’s study was unethically funded and fraudulent. Wakefield still stands by his research, based on 12 children, and he has many followers who remain skeptical about vaccines’ safety. He said the combination of the MMR vaccine could alter a child’s immune system and intestines, and in turn harm neurons in the brain. Wakefield believes parents should have the option of separating the vaccines.
“There was no fraud at any stage,” Wakefield said. “I’ve never been involved in scientific fraud. The notion that I admitted to fraud is absolutely extraordinary. … If that’s the quality of information informing the Oregon Senate and the people of Oregon, they’re being very badly served.”
A guest opinion published by the Mail Tribune argued that Steiner Hayward’s bill infringes on a parent’s right to choose what kind of health care his/her child receives.
When measles cases appeared in the U.S. last March (remember last year’s panic?), the New York Times asked two British doctors what they thought about mandatory vaccinations. They explained that though they had more measles in Britain than we had here, there was little concern, because they had excellent vaccination rates of 93.2 percent, and that, in fact, they were almost as high as rates in the U.S.! They are pleased; we are panicked.
They also pointed out that forcing universal vaccination by compulsion is not up for discussion in the United Kingdom because it is incompatible with a free democracy, and that all forms of medical compulsion have been abolished by law in the U.K. It was sobering to see that pointed out by British doctors, juxtaposed with American practitioners calling for compulsory treatment.
